Are You Famous Enough to Not See Twitter Ads?

Not seeing any ads on Twitter? Lucky you. You could be a glitterati Twitterati, a member of the elite class the social-media giant is graciously sparing from commercial content.

Twitter, though it hasn’t officially copped to it yet, has quit displaying ads to “a small group” of its big kahuna users, Re/Code reports. The controversial tactic smacks of desperation, as the struggling company vies to keep its most prominent users hooked on the little blue bird for the long haul.

Since last September, the creme de la tweet have been privy to an ad-free or almost ad-free ride. Popularity has always had its privileges, and the digital age is no exception.

While clearly not for regular folk, the first-class Twitter experience isn’t just for the rich and famous. It’s also apparently for a select group of users who reach a wide swath of eyeballs with their extra special tweetsauce.

Twitter declined to comment.

It’s no secret that the company, which just hemorrhaged several key executives, makes a pretty penny off of peppering ads into users’ feeds. Still, with perhaps 412 years’ worth of cash on hand to turn its latest frown upside down, the company can more than afford to stop Easter-egging a few popular users’ feeds with marketing messages. Twitter’s 2015 revenue is projected at $2.2 billion, with the lion’s share of it attributed to ads.